Chemical industry cyber attacks needed privileged identity management

Commenting on reports from Symantec that hackers targeted nearly 30 companies in the chemical industry this summer, with the intent of stealing sensitive IP, Lieberman Software says that this latest cyber crime wave cries out for privileged identity management technology.

Philip Lieberman, president and CEO of the identity management specialist, points out that, while digital rights management (DRM) is often proposed as a panacea for IP security, the attacks identified in Symantec's research use 'spear phishing' that fools email recipients into compromising their IDs and passwords.

"Privileged identity management, on the other hand, limits the damage that compromised account credentials can cause, and can stop hackers from gaining access to private data, following a security breach," he adds.

Lieberman insists that the mere fact that these firms include Fortune 100 companies, that can afford experienced IT security professionals, demonstrates that sophisticated cyber attacks stand a good chance of getting through the defences even of the best.

For him, privileged identity management controls are key, because they can act as "a last line of defence" against hackers gaining access to administrator level accounts – so preventing intruders from gaining full control over an organisation's IT resources.

"The fact that these victim organisations are developing new materials for military vehicles, advanced manufacturing infrastructure, and other strategic technologies is very worrying, as it means that there may be more than a simple economic crime perpetrated here," states Lieberman.

And he expresses concern that the attacks apparently used a backdoor Trojan called Poison Ivy. "Poison Ivy uses distant command-and-control servers to gain remote control over compromised systems, which suggests to me a degree of professionalism amongst the hackers.

"It seems like this should be clear wake-up call to organisations that fail to secure their privileged identities."